Bettie's Books

bookshelves: autumn-2014, nonfiction, published-2014, true-grime, sciences, research

BOTW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nrh0s

Description: The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died - and who killed them. Forensic scientists can use a corpse, the scene of a crime or a single hair to unlock the secrets of the past and allow justice to be done.

Bestselling crime author Val McDermid will draw on interviews with top-level professionals to delve, in her own inimitable style, into the questions and mysteries that surround this fascinating science. How is evidence collected from a brutal crime scene? What happens at an autopsy? What techniques, from blood spatter and DNA analysis to entomology, do such experts use? How far can we trust forensic evidence?

Looking at famous murder cases, as well as investigations into the living - sexual assaults, missing persons, mistaken identity - she will lay bare the secrets of forensics from the courts of seventeenth-century Europe through Jack the Ripper to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.

Having Forensic Archaeology, Forensic Science and Forensic Psychology under the belt this year I find that I am rather drawn to it all, so bring it on Ms McDermid, bring it right on!

fo·ren·sic
adjective fə-ˈren(t)-sik, -ˈren-zik
: relating to the use of scientific knowledge or methods in solving crimes
: relating to, used in, or suitable to a court of law
: relating to or dealing with the application of scientific knowledge to legal problems a forensic pathologist forensic experts

Episode 2/5: Entomology and Pathology - from a Chinese criminal investigation in 1247 to the case of Dr Crippen.

Episode 3/5: Val explores the astonishing developments in Crime Scene Investigation through fingerprinting and DNA evidence.

Episode 4/5 Val McDermid explores the use of anthropology, facial reconstruction and digital forensics.

Eoisode 5/10 Today Val reveals her personal interest in forensic science and how her research connects with her fiction.

This reads like the University of Manchester Forensic courses, methods best showcased in the Scott and Bailey TV series. I loved that Val read this herself, with her deep, lilting voice.

TR The Mermaids Singing (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #1)
TR The Wire In The Blood (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #2)
4* A Place of Execution
TR Fever of the Bone (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #6)
TR The Torment of Others (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #4)
3* The Distant Echo
TR Beneath The Bleeding (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #5)
TR The Retribution (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #7)
TR The Last Temptation (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, #3)
2* A Darker Domain
3* Clean Break (Kate Brannigan, #4)
2* Village SOS
2* Deadheading
3* Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime